Sorry, Wrong Channel, Witch!
by ThePink1 at Reefside.Net
Summary: Something weird is going on, and it isn't just in Heatherfield! SERIOUSLY crack-fic, but guaranteed fun! R & R, please.
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry, Wrong Channel!**

A Crossover fanfic by _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters, but the plot is all mine.

Prequel Chapter 1

Just after Season Two:

The mysterious wave of energy crashed over Heatherfield like a tsunami, washing away all that was before.

Will

For once, Will woke up first. It wasn't anything specific that did it; rather, it was the sheer _lack_ of background noise that brought her out of her usual nightly coma. Nosing out of her covers, she looked blearily for her frog clock. Not seeing it right away, Will sat up, and whomped her head on the ceiling.

With a yelp, she reached and looked up, to find only smooth earth with her questing paws. Something at the back of her mind worried for a second, then her brain caught up to the _other_ info.

Will held her hands (_paws_?) up in front of her face, and her ears flattened back in fear. _'I have paws?!'_ The next thing registered belatedly, and she reached up and felt the top of her head, where she met with two long tapering furry ears stretched back across her hair. _'My ears, ohmigod, what happened to my ears? What's happened to ME?! I'm … I'm a rabbit!!'_

"**Help me, I turned into a rabbit!"** she cried, panicking.

A few seconds later, a humongous tan rodent with flared ears and a long tail came running into her room.

"What is it, Will? What's wrong?" the rodent asked, _in her mother's voice._

Will screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry, Wrong Channel

**Sorry, Wrong Channel!**

A Crossover fanfic by _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters, but the plot is all mine.

Prequel Chapter 2

Just after Season Two:

The mysterious wave of energy crashed over Heatherfield like a tsunami, washing away all that was before.

Hay Lin

Hay Lin was having the most glorious dream. Since becoming the Air Guardian, she had dreamed often of flying, but usually as her super-self, or once in a while, like after watching old black & white movies with her dad, in an old WWI biplane. But tonight, she was a bird: light as a feather, free as a song, black as her hair, and swift as lightning. For some reason though, she was dreaming that she was a bird stuck in her room.

Some intellectual part at the back of her mind wondered what Taranee would say about that, but most of her was happy to just flit from end to end in the dimly lit space. She also briefly wondered why it was so _dark_ in her room, which was usually lit up by several strands of decorative lights. She merely shrugged it off, thinking that as a bird, she wouldn't have electric lights anyway, silly.

Just then, her parents and grandmother came in, and Hay Lin didn't think anything of it that _they were birds, too!_ Her father was a large brown crane, while her mother was, like her, small and dark, with a long sweeping tail. Grandma was a gigantic, large-breasted crow that appeared to be wearing a tall witch's hat. The sight made Hay Lin giggle, which came out as a gay twitter.

"Ooooh, look, Chen! Our little Hay-hay is finally flying!" her mother peeped happily. She rose up into the air and swooped several times around her, as Chen and Yan cheered from below. "Soon, my little hatchling will be finding her mate and building a nest of her own," Joan continued sentimentally, gliding next to her daughter so their wings overlapped in an aerial 'hug'.

"_Mommmm,_" Hay groaned. She did a rollover and an Immelmann loop before settling back on her bed.

"Alright, you two, we can celebrate tomorrow," Yan Lin said to her son and daughter-in-law as the latter came back to the ground. "Let's let Hay get back to bed. And that _does_ mean back to bed, young lady." Yan gave her twittering granddaughter a meaningful glare. "We've got a lot to do tomorrow."

"_Why so strict, Grandma? It's just a dream,"_ Hay Lin whispered.

Her grandmother held back till her parents were out of the room, then gave her another meaningful look. "Hay, this isn't a dream."

'_Ohmigosh,'_ Hay remembered thinking, just before all heck broke loose.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry, Wrong Channel!**

A Crossover fanfic by _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters, but the plot is all mine.

Prequel Chapter 3

Just after Season Two:

The mysterious wave of energy crashed over Heatherfield like a tsunami, washing away all that was before.

_**Taranee**_

The sound of glass breaking woke Taranee from a beautiful dream. She'd dreamt of being in Hawaii, doing up-close research at Mauna Loa volcano as only the Fire Guardian could. The subtle shift of obsidian underfoot and the roaring heat of fresh hot lava had been dislodged by a shattering sound and her brother cursing in a screechy, squeaky voice.

"Puckernuts," she groaned, borrowing a phrase from her favorite comic book. _'Hey, if elves think they're bad enough to swear by, then they're bad enough for me,'_ she giggled, still half-awake. Her brother's renewed screeching brought her the rest of the way out of her sleep-fog, and she leapt out of bed to see what was wrong. He sounded like someone had lopped off a limb; boys usually didn't hit those high notes after puberty.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she cried, careening around the corner into his room. Taranee noticed even her voice sounded squeakier, and wondered if someone has broken open a Helium balloon or a Nitrous Oxide capsule in the house.

Peter Cook was thrashing around in his bedcovers, completely wrapped up, and screeching and cursing while trying to fight his way out. He finally managed to get one arm out, and Taranee uttered an _"Eeeep!"_ of alarm. His arm was as hairy as Blunk's, just not green.

'_Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod, _please_ tell me my brother isn't a werewolf,'_ she whined to herself; her life was plenty weird enough already. Then Peter's free arm snaked to the top, and wrested the sheet the rest of the way off of him. The two siblings looked at each other in blank shock for a moment, then both screamed.

"_AAAAHHHH!! YOU"RE A __**MONNNNKEEEEY**__!!"_ they both cried, pointing hairy fingers at each other. As if that wasn't enough, extra details started jumping into focus to both of them.

"You've got a pig's nose!" Taranee told Peter. He reached up and found she was telling the plain, awful truth.

"Well, you're the Rainbow Brite of Wild Kingdom," he responded, pointing to her shoulders and her feet.

"What else?" she gasped, turning in place and trying to look at the rest of herself. She was just cataloguing the fact that she now had prehensile toes to match her hands when Peter gasped behind her. "What?" she asked, spinning back around. "For God's sake Peter, what?"

"Your tail …" he managed to utter.

"Yeah, I have a tail. So do you," she responded, acidly. She was _soooo_ gonna read the Oracle the riot act for this surprise. "It's what makes monkeys _monkeys_, Peter. What about it?"

"T'ree, your tail … is on _FIRE_." He sounded like he was telling her she had cancer.

"Of course it's on fire," her father said from the hallway. He came into the room, and the two teens screamed again. "WHAT?!" Lionel Cook cried, thinking something else was wrong, and the kids, both on the bed now and hopping around in terror, couldn't do more than point vaguely in his direction and whimper.

"Oh for Entei's sake," he grumbled, swinging Peter's door nearly closed and giving himself a once-over in the mirror on the back. No fresh bruises, no blood or broken _anything_ visible, no scorchmarks or other energy scars … just perfect grey skin, with his striations showing to perfection up his muscular arms. A thin white hand pushed through the gap left and pushed the door back open, and his mate Theresa came in, her thin purple limbs all shaking in agitation.

"What's wrong with the kids, Lionel?" The two teens screamed again, grabbing hold of each other for safety's sake in terror. Their mother was a monkey too, apparently; a purple one with _three tails,_ and at the end of each tail, _a hand?!_ Peter and Taranee shared a scared look, then did the only thing their brains would let them at this point. They both fainted.

"Oh, what now?" Lionel grumped, rolling Taranee back over and patting out the scorchmark her flaring tail had left in Peter's favorite new red sheets before it could spark into worse.

"Give her here. _Her_ sheets are fireproofed," Theresa replied and took hold of Taranee, her middle tail securing her daughter's flaming appendage to keep it from endangering anything else. While she took their daughter back to her own room, Lionel tugged Peter's sheets straight and tucked his son back in. Meeting back up in the hall outside Peter's door, the two worried parents went back to their den to worry together. "What could have scared them both that bad?" Theresa asked, holding onto one of Lionel's hands with almost all seven of hers. "It was like they didn't recognize us."

"I just don't know, Vespiqueen of mine. I just don't know."


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry, Wrong Channel!**

A Crossover fanfic by _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters, but the plot is all mine.

Prequel Chapter 4

Just after Season Two:

The mysterious wave of energy crashed over Heatherfield like a tsunami, washing away all that was before.

_**Irma**_

Irma stretched, luxuriating in the flow of the water all around her. She was _so_ glad she'd bought the little plug-in jet-stream maker for her tub; it turned it into a personal Jacuzzi. It had lulled her to sleep for a while, but now she blinked back to wakefulness with a slow grin. _'Good thing I'll never have to worry about drowning,'_ she thought, looking up at the surface of the water.

Something round floated into her field of vision. She was about to grab it, thinking it was her bath pouf, when it sprouted four legs and a head. _'Leafy,'_ she realized, grinning wider. It turned into a frown quickly as she thought _'Hey, I don't remember leaving him out, let alone bringing him in the tub with me …'_

Poking her head above the surface so they were at eye level, she 'thought' at the tiny turtle. _"Hey, little guy. What're you doing out of your bowl?"_ She had tried 'talking' with him like this before, with few results. (Though to be fair, since Taranee was the actual telepath, Irma wasn't sure he _hadn't_ responded previously.) So she was completely floored when he opened his mouth and spoke.

"Don't like little clearstone home," he croaked. "Climbed out to be with you."

Irma noticed something else, even as her mind was reeling from the newly-conversant turtle before her.

Leafy was … _rounder_ than before. His red markings hadn't changed, but almost everything else about him had. His shell and his head were more dome-shaped now, and … (she had to blink furiously a few times, to make sure it wasn't a matter of water-in-her-eyes,) there was a tiny _plant growing out of his head!_

"_H-hey Leafy?"_ she started shakily. _"What's up with the new look?"_

Leafy looked back at her, his head cocked to one side in curiosity for a second, then down at his rippled reflection in the water between them. "Not new; Leafy always look like this. Am best Turtwig in town, no?"

Irma's brain stalled out for a minute. Then … "T-turtwig? Like … the Poke'mon?!" In her shock, she asked him out loud, instead of using her 'sending' ability. Her voice sounded strange, like she was breathing Helium mixed in with her water.

Leafy (_the Turtwig!_) blinked ponderously, and nodded with a reptilian smile. "Why surprised, Watirma? Forget you're a Wartortle? Nice one, too." Irma didn't know which was creepier; taking a good look in the mirror and finding out Leafy was right (!?!), or that her pet turtle (_Turtwig!_) was hitting on her …


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry, Wrong Channel!**

A Crossover fanfic by _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters, but the plot is all mine.

Prequel Chapter 5

Just after Season Two:

The mysterious wave of energy crashed over Heatherfield like a tsunami, washing away all that was before.

_**Cornelia**_

Cornelia woke up after what she felt was her worst night's sleep since Elyon's original disappearance to Meridian. The sleeping problem was a mystery, while what had woken her wasn't.

Her annoying six-year-old sister was bouncing on the end of her bed. (Cornelia had long ago taught the little beast the consequences of bouncing on _her.)_ "Get up! Wake up, sleepyhead! C'mon, Corny, it's a snow day, Mom's making pancakes, and I can't get the marmalade jar open! I need you to vine-whip it again! C'mon, please? Wake up!"

"_Don't call me Corny,"_ the groggy Earth Guardian muttered into her pillow. That did it; Irma was never helping her watch her sister again. As if Lillian's many other bad habits weren't enough, Water-girl had to give her more. Half of the rest of her sister's whining slowly filtered into her brain then. Rolling her head to look at her alarm clock, she _'Eeeep!'_ed at the time and sat up.

"Lillian, are you sure it's a snow day? 'Cause if it's not …" Cornelia's voice cut out as she turned to face her sister."Uh, Lils, did you get into the poster paints Hay-hay left here from Christmas?"

"Huh? No!" Her sister looked at her funny for a second. "Why?"

"Lils, you're _purple!"_

"And you're green. So what? Now get up already. Mom's making pancakes, and neither of us could open the oranberry marmalade. Let's go!" Lillian, in all her pint-sized golden and purple glory, hopped off the end of Cornelia's bed and bounded back out the door. Cornelia looked after her, dumbfounded.

"What did she mean, I'm … green ..?" She gasped as she got a good long look at herself. "Holy hopping prophets of Zarquan … the little pest wasn't kidding …" Cornelia clambered out of bed, only vaguely reassured she had the right number of limbs.

Because, quite simply, nothing else was right.

She guessed her height to be a little over a foot. Her room was mysteriously scaled to that, thankfully, or she'd have seriously twisted something getting out of her usual three-foot-plus bed. Her skin was a vibrant green, covered in leaves, and her hands were … She kept blinking, hoping the nightmare would end there, so she could wake up screaming and get it over with. Where her hands should have been … were two giant roses, the right one bright red, and the left one an indigo that almost … _matched her sister …_

"Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod," she breathed out over and over as she started tearing around her room, looking for her cell phone. Once more cursing the fact that she lived _just_ outside telepathic range of the next nearest Guardian, Hay Lin, (They'd tested it out once, and their sending range was almost exactly a kilometer.) she snatched up her phone, only to scream in frustration when she nearly fumbled it with her rose-petal hands. "Come _here,_ you little …" Finally getting it between both buds, she started to walk back to her bed to have a flat surface. She hoped to have a relatively better time of trying to use the tiny keyboard there.

Three steps later, she had a mini-conniption when the phone, which was still plugged on its charger from her late-night gab-fest with Elyon, nearly flew back out of her hands when she reached the end of the cord. _'What next?'_ she wondered, backtracking. With a little judicious elbow-use, she managed to knock the charger loose of the wall socket, and went back to her bed, dragging it along like a recalcitrant puppy. She was just setting the accursed phone down, wondering which of the girls to call first, when her mother yelled.

"Cornelia, get your bud down here before breakfast gets cold!" Then a buzzer sounded, and, "Oh, answer the door, first! Your friends are here!" Elizabeth stopped yelling as loud at the sound of Cornelia careening down the stairs. "They probably got up before the school announcements were finished, and decided to come save you from your sister," her mother laughed from their kitchen.

"_Saved is right,"_ Cornelia muttered, though spending a snowbound day trapped with her sister was the least of her worries at the moment. She slid to the door and buzzed the girls up without even paging first, desperately hoping one of them could fix whatever was messing with the order of the universe.

At the sound of the elevator's _'ding!'_, she began fumbling with the doorknob, and it took her nearly a minute before she managed to get the latch and yank the door open. "Thank god," she started to say. "I woke up … like … this …" For the second time that morning Cornelia Hale's brain stumbled to a stop as it was presented with the unbelievable.

Standing on her doorstep were a yellow mouse with bright red plus signs on its cheeks, a big blue turtle with brown tufted wings at its temples, a white and orange monkey with a flaming tail, and another monkey with a pig's nose. Fluttering over their heads were two black birds, one small with grey markings and the other a large-breasted crow that appeared to be wearing a witch's hat.

"Cornelia," the blazing primate said, straitening out glasses that looked a _lot_ like Taranee's. "We need to talk."


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry, Wrong Channel!**

A Crossover fanfic by _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters, but the plot is all mine.

Prequel Chapter 6

Just after Season Two:

The mysterious wave of energy crashed over Heatherfield like a tsunami, washing away all that was before.

_**Lillian**_

"_Hey, Cornelia?"_ Hay asked telepathically, in the middle her second chocolate chip pancake. _"Are you sure your sister's never heard of Poke'mon?"_ The two girls looked down to the far end of the table, where the small girl sat in all her blonde and purple glory, busy arguing type-trumping with Irma the wartortle. The young smoochum (Hay had identified her when they came in) was playing up all the techniques she already knew, and Irma was stating the counter-move for each, proving to the other members of W.i.t.c.h. that she'd definitely played the many colors of the game way too much.

_"I thought not,"_ the flowering Earth Guardian replied. _"I mean, Dad banished the show from the house, after we watched one of the movies, and he saw all the little fighting monsters. And I know she's never had the game, unlike some people,"_ she added, giving Irma an exasperated glare.

"_I'll betcha she picked it all up from other kids at school,"_ Will countered, remembering the whole Smurf craze that had briefly tidal-waved through her elementary school. Already a frog-fan even then, she herself hadn't succumbed to the madness, but even she had been able to name the most popular of the little blue things.

"_It might be bigger than that. Our parents didn't think anything was different, even though Pete and I both were completely freaked,"_ Taranee added. She had her hand firmly wrapped in her brother's, including him in their telepathic 'conference-calling'. He hadn't added anything himself so far, but the girls were willing to hope it was still just shock. They were also all aware of Yan Lin, perched next to Hay, with a wing laid lightly over her twittering granddaughter's back so she could join in as well.

It was Yan who had told them how to include extra people in their mental network, after they had arrived together at the Hales', and Peter had made it plain that he wanted to know just what the #&][ was going on. Elizabeth Hale interrupted just then, coming back in from the kitchen with an extra plate of pancakes and a pitcher of milk.

"Anybody else still hungry?" she asked, setting both down in the middle of the table. Peter nodded, and plucked a couple pancakes from the stack she'd just brought. "Don't forget to drink your milk, kids," Elizabeth added, smiling indulgently. She walked around the table to go back, ruffling her older daughter's leaves and Lillian's hair on her way with loving claws.

"What did you say my Mom is again?" Cornelia pleaded, forgetting to send mentally in stress.

"A kangaskhan," Hay chirped, before dipping her short beak carefully in her glass of milk for a few swallows.

"I still say she's a Nidoqueen in hiding," Lillian piped up from the other end of the table. "How else did we end up with a poison-type budding on the family tree?" she teased, sticking her tongue out at Cornelia.

"Nope; nothing's changed here," Cornelia groaned, putting her face in her petals. "Hey, pipsqueak, we've gotta go help out at Matt's grandpa's … Poke'center, but when we get back, IF you've been good, we'll take you out to make snow angels, okay?"

"As long as you don't bring Chris," the smoochum countered, with a pretend pout at Irma.

"Fear not, Lils. The only way we'd let him come along," Irma replied, brown ear-wings flapping in amusement, "is if we wanted to have a snowball fight … boys versus girls."

Peter yelled "Hey!" and the rest of W.i.t.c.h. laughed along with Yan Lin at the slow smile that crept, grinch-like, across Lillian's face at that idea. "Uh, we're not _really_ gonna solve this at Olsen's Animal Clinic, are we?" he continued quietly to his sister.

"_Of course not, Peter_," Hay told him telepathically. He squirmed nervously as she continued_. "We're gonna have to ask advice from a much higher power than Old Jim. We're going to Candracar. Right Grandma?"_

"_Too right, my little starly,"_ Yan replied reassuringly. She shook her head. Nothing this weird had happened when _she_ was a Guardian. She only hoped that when they got there, the Oracle would have an answer.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry, Wrong Channel!**

A Crossover fanfic by _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters, but the plot is all mine.

Prequel Chapter 7

Just after Season Two:

The mysterious wave of energy crashed over Heatherfield like a tsunami, washing away all that was before.

_**Candracar**_

"Hay Lin, would you _please_ come back down here?" Will yelled out the balcony doorway. As soon as they had managed to get away from Cornelia's house, the Guardians had folded straight to the Temple in Candracar, Peter and Yan tagging along. Will was only sorry she hadn't had time to get hold of Matt and Huggles as well, though she was sure that they were fine back in Heatherfield. Napoleon (now a Glameow) had told the girls quietly that he'd get out and rendezvous with his fellow Regents as soon as they were gone, and do his best at damage control.

Hay sang a carefree "OKAY!" and came swooping in the door, millimeters from Will's red ears. Sailing along on her wings, Hay refused to settle to a single surface, instead doing slow circles around the rest of the Guardians as they sat before the Oracle.

"Man, this day just gets weirder and weirder," Peter grumbled to his sister.

"You're preaching to the choir, Pete," she returned, examining her flaming tail for the millionth time.

"Just zap her, Will. It's the only way we'll get her down," Irma told the Guardian Leader while eyeballing the soaring Hay Lin. "It won't even take much. Flying types are weak to electricity." Yan Lin pecked Irma on her brown, wing-like ear. "What? Sorry! It's the truth!" Will and the other girls laughed.

"I have been observing Earth all morning," the Oracle said suddenly, standing up from his usual floating lotus position. "The change is world-wide, Guardians. Also, you are not alone in noticing the new reality. I am going to send you all to meet with the different groups of those who are aware, and bring them together in the area we believe to be the source of the change. I must warn you, though, not all of them will follow this directive willingly, at first."

"'_course_ not," Irma muttered. "Who would believe that they're all suddenly cartoon critters from somebody's video game? Or that _we_ think we know how to fix it?"

"Oracle, would it speed things up if we split into teams?" Taranee asked, ignoring Irma. "We could reach more of the others at the same time that way."

"Astute as ever, Fire Guardian," the Oracle said with a nod. "For that, and for reuniting after you have the others with you, you will need ways to travel farther and faster than flying alone ... Follow me." He headed off towards the Chamber of the Aurameres.

Luba, the feline woman from Basiliade, smirked when she saw the transformed Guardians. "I knew most of you were prey animals when we met. These new forms prove it."

"Orb-Keeper, not now," Yan said, her wings flapping harshly. "We have too much else to be about." The Oracle nodded.

"Indeed," he said. "Guardian Vandom, bring forth the Heart, please. Guardian Lin, if you would settle _down_, by your Auramere?" He looked pointedly up at the still-flying Hay Lin. She tittered, nodded, and swooped down past Luba to land next to the Air Orb.

"Heartwielder, hold the Heart of Candracar out and touch the Auramere of Air with it." Will looked at the Oracle dubiously, then reluctantly did as directed. "Hay Lin, touch the point where the two make contact." Both Guardians exchanged a glance, then looked back at him to be sure. He nodded serenely, and they did as he said. The moment Hay's wing came in contact with her Auramere and the Heart, a silvery pendant fell out of the Air Sphere and into her grasp. Both girls gasped, and backed away before anything else could happen.

Hay Lin held up her wing, the silver jewelry glinting against her black feathers. "It looks like the Heart!" she chirped. "Except … it's smaller." She ducked her small beak along her wing, and flipped the necklace over her head.

"You now wear the Heart of Air," the Oracle said. "A temporarily material piece of your Auramere. It will allow you to open folds and teletransport people as the Heart of Candracar does …"

"_How_ temporary?" Will asked, not liking the idea of the tiny jewel stranding impulsive Hay Lin where she couldn't come back from. The red plus signs on her cheeks sparked.

"They draw on the life-force of their Guardian as much as the Auramere, so if used sparingly, the Elemental Hearts could theoretically last indefinitely. Unfortunately, as these missions are shaping to my vision, I don't see them lasting more than a couple dozen uses."

"You mean these things could kill us?" Taranee gasped.

"No," the Oracle soothed. "Quite the reverse, unfortunately. If you are to stress the number of uses to their limit, the Hearts are likely to dissolve under the strain, breaking your connection to the Auramere in the process. You would, in effect, no longer be a Guardian, until such time as your connection could be reforged."

"I don't recommend it," Luba gloated, as the Guardians all looked warily at the tiny jewel around Hay's throat. "It hurts. Just ask Cassidy."

"Ohmigod, the others! Will, we've got to go back! The rest of the magical community are gonna be going nuts!" Taranee cried. She ran forward and grabbed hold of Will's yellow shoulder, and their Leader hissed.

"Ah! T, you've gotta calm down!" Will cried, stepping back. The others became aware of the smell of scorched fur, and could see the handprint Taranee had left on Will.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Taranee wrung her hands, frightened more by her own powers than ever before.

"How about these other Hearts, Will, so we can get through this?" Irma asked. Cornelia stepped forward, since her Auramere was next to Hay's. "Hey, Corny. Figured out how to use vine-whip, yet?"

A fine green line slashed through the space between the two transformed girls, and Irma fell to her knees, hissing in pain.

"The _#&][_?" Irma gasped. Cornelia was retracting a single vine into her left flower.

"Don't call me Corny. _Especially_ not before we're turned back. Water's weak to plants, _Irmy_." The Earth Guardian strode daintily over to Will, and waved the last showing foot of her vine around nonchalantly. "Whenever you're ready, Will." The Guardian of Quintessence just nodded and repeated her performance from the Air Auramere with the Earth Orb. Cornelia caught the extruded necklace expertly, and flicked it over her floral head with her vine. The gold-and-green charm settled against her chest, and suddenly, Cornelia shuddered.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Hay chirped, rushing forward. Nothing had happened when she'd gotten _her_ Heart; what could be happening with Cornelia's?

"Oh, God! I'm sorry!" Cornelia sobbed, sinking to her green knees. She cradled the new Earth Heart between her flowery hands. "I'm sorry! I promise!" She staggered to her pointed feet and over to Irma, where she collapsed again, wrapping her willowy arms around the surprised Wartortle. "Irma, I'm sorry!" The two shook from the sobs Cornelia was wracked with.

"Whoa, what's with that?" Peter asked, as mystified as the other Guardians. Luba chuckled nastily.

"The Aurameres strenuously disapprove of the Guardians' infighting. When Cornelia went so far as to use her Element purposefully against another Guardian, the Heart of Earth made her feel what she'd done to Irma. It is something I would have done to the two of them ages ago." The catwoman spun away to sit on a bench against the far wall.

"Whoa," Peter the mankey repeated. "Heavy." Taranee _'Eeeep!'_ed as Will stepped over to the Fire Auramere.

"T? You ready?" Before she could think about it further, Taranee jogged forward, and held her hand out, just short of the surface of the Sphere.

"Just say when," she said nervously. Will touched the side of the Fire Auramere, and then nudged Taranee, who was standing frozen next to her. Taranee took a deep, shuddering breath, and tapped the very tip of her finger against the two Energy nexuses. Before even the skittish Fire Guardian could flee, the new-born Heart of Fire had emerged, settling into her retreating hand. Taranee stared down at it in wonder, then looked up at Will. "I know what's wrong, Will. And I'm going to make it right." With that mysterious missive, Taranee performed a great leap, bounding up and over all the other's heads and back out of the room towards the Chamber of the Congregation.

"I'll, uh … I'll stay with her," Peter chattered, and scooted after his sister.

"Oracle?" Hay Lin cheeped, fluttering up to his eye-level. "Are these things safe?" She flipped her own new Heart up with an extra-hard flap of her wings. He grinned reassuringly at her, and Yan flapped up to settle a wing over her granddaughter.

"We've used them once ourselves," Yan told her. "Long ago during a search for a cure for a poison Queen Weira was stricken with." She hung her head then. "Sadly, it was too many years before the fall of Nerissa, and she did not remember the Aurameres' views on cooperation. Cassidy sacrificed herself needlessly for that."

"Not needlessly, old friend," the Oracle corrected gently. "With nobility." Their eyes were sad for a moment. "But she is back with us now," he amended with a smile. "Now, what does your Heart tell you, happy Hay Lin?"

"That Irma's next!" the hyper bird-girl peeped. She dove away in a dizzying spin to alight on her oldest friend's head, and looked down at her and Cornelia. "Irma Lair, come on down! You're the next contestant on 'This Heart's for you!'"

Cornelia started laughing, and Irma pushed the plant-girl away. "This day better have a happy ending, 'cause the morning sure isn't shaping up too well," Irma rumbled, getting to her feet. Stomping her way over to the Water Auramere, she eyed Will speculatively. "You know, you're getting out of this easy, Will. The Heart of Candracar won't screw with your head, at least."

"Says who? I've still gotta make all the tough decisions," the red-and-yellow rodent countered. She held out the Heart against the Auramere, and Irma placed one stubby hand against the surface of the Orb where the two met. The Heart of Water flowed out, and Irma lifted it to put it over her head, only to run into technical difficulties from the length of her arms compared to the curve of her shell.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be _kidding_ me!" Irma swore, looking down at the beautiful turquoise jewel in exasperation.

"Let me," a gentle voice said from behind her. Before Irma could turn to find out who it was, a pair of vines came wrapping around her, lifted the jewel gently from her hand, and draped it around her neck. The gem in the necklace tinkled as it bumped against her shell. Irma turned to see Cornelia, contrite expression in her huge eyes, which matched Irma's new Heart.

"Can't forget. Plants need Water to live, too … don't they?" Cornelia asked. Irma _'tump'_ed forward and embraced with her floral friend.

"I'm sorry, too, Cornelia," she choked out. "You know me. Sarcasm's my chosen weapon in life. How else would I make it as a hit Dee-Jay?" The four Guardians still in the room all laughed together.

"Okay, let's go see what epiphany has Taranee's britches burning," Will said, and the others laughed harder as they filed out of the room in search of their missing Fire primate.

"Huh," Luba said quietly, watching them go. "They might get through this in one piece after all."

_W.I.T.C.H._

(**Author's note:**) _Here ends W.i.t.c.h.'s prequel for _"Sorry, Wrong Channel!"_ As soon as the other participants are up-to-speed, we'll be seeing our girls in action again, so fear not faithful readers! Don't forget to leave a review on the way out, and we'll catch ya on the flipside. Thanks for reading, A J._


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